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How Not To Become Lunch: 14 - Catch a Break
“Phew! Glad that day’s over!” Jack breathed in relief. Now safely under Fiona’s watchful protection, their last classes having just ended, the pair walked through the crowded halls toward the school’s exit.
“Yeah, I haven’t been this nervous about you since your first day,” Fiona’s tail twitched with anxiety just thinking back on it. “You must have been losing your mind.”
“Just about. I mean, I know preds aren’t supposed to hunt during class, but I still felt like everyone had their eyes on me. Actually, I think Ozzy was almost as nervous as I was. He had one hand on his wand the whole time. You really scare him, ya know.”
“Me? Why?”
“Well, he figured if a pred did get me during math class, then you’d be mad and eat him as revenge.”
“I would n-… I probably wouldn’t do that.”
Jack chuckled.
*gurgle* went Fiona’s plump belly amidst the dull roar of chatter. They both chose to ignore it.
“Well seeing as you were still there for our history class, I’d say he did a good job. Remind him he’s got a pred that owes him a favor, that should help calm him down.” She couldn’t help the slightly cocky tone that entered her voice. Stressful or not, now that it was over Fiona couldn’t help but admit the day had been good to her. She’d successfully gotten her friend through school alive, and she’d gotten a nice meal to boot.
“I hope so. Maybe he’ll finally loosen up when we sit together at lunch. He’s actually pretty funny when he’s not quietly freaking out.”
“That right?” Fiona replied rhetorically.
They stepped outside through the large doors and walked a few paces forward. The kids previously packed into the halls quickly dispersed as they reached the open space, spreading out and leaving room to breathe. Fiona tipped her snout upwards and sniffed at the fresh air, as she commonly did. The afternoon smelled of triumph to her.
“No! P-pend-”
Fiona recognized the frightened tone in Jack’s voice. Why did these things always seem to happen when she thought they were in the clear? Sure enough, she turned quickly to see Jack, with his wand-wielding arm outstretched, but his head wedged solidly in a set of narrow canine jaws.
She took in the scene in an instant. The predator was male, and though definitely a canine like herself, he was not a werewolf. A cynanthrope- a weredog- some not-too-distant relative on the evolutionary tree. He made no move to take off with his would-be prey- not that he’d be able to get away. His narrow figure suggested he didn’t commonly eat anything nearly as filling as a human. And there was an air of desperation about him; someone was not confident about their homework assignment.
“Hey! Drop him!” Fiona commanded angrily. She wasn’t overly concerned, but any pred who would set their teeth on Jack was something to take seriously.
The dog boy shrunk back a bit, eyes darting to her, but he looked fretfully unsure. Evidently, he was quite desperate. Fiona would have to quell that doubt in his mind as to whether he should listen to her.
“I said, let him go,” she growled, exposing a flash of her teeth as she bared her claws. Her words were pointed and threatening, like claws or teeth in their own right. Her glare equally so.
The dog boy squealed around his ill-fated meal, quickly dropped Jack- who he hadn’t even managed to swallow once- and then took off into the thinning crowd. Jack, coughing, caught a glimpse of Fiona’s intimidating glare before it softened.
“You okay?” she asked sympathetically.
“Yeah.” He felt around his neck where his attacker’s teeth had briefly settled. “As far as pred attacks go, that one was almost nothing. You didn’t even touch that guy, did you?”
“Didn’t need to.” There was that slight, cocky tone again.
“Guess you’re starting to get a reputation.”
“Maybe.” Fiona wasn’t totally sure how she felt about that. On one hand, it would mean fewer preds going after Jack. On the other hand, making friends in high school was hard enough without being known for scaring off every other pred you meet.
“*sigh* You know I thought I’d be in the clear once we got out of school.” Jack wiped a bit of drool from his face, and as he did his eyes caught on those of another predator, not approaching or threatening, but just watching him from the crowd. Suddenly, he got the feeling there were probably others.
Fiona seemed to catch the same thought, looking around casually but astutely.
“You know, maybe it would be better if I stayed at your place tonight… In case someone gets the idea to follow me home,” Jack suggested. Now that he’d said that out loud, Fiona was sure that at least one pred would have that idea.
“Yeah, good call,” Fiona replied. She gestured and they started walking again, neither feeling particularly eager to stay in the swarm of students any longer.
“Man, sometimes I miss being a little kid,” Jack muttered. “Life seemed a lot less dangerous back then.”
…
“I bet you I could get it!” replied a high-pitched, determined voice.
“You really think so?”
“Watch me!”
Coby did watch. He watched his friend and classmate, the little werewolf girl, run toward the big tree in the schoolyard. The young cub followed at some distance, looking on with interest as she approached the thick trunk and examined it. He was a bit skeptical of her claim- after all, wolves weren’t exactly known for being able to climb trees, unlike bears- but that only made him more excited to see her try.
The determined pup bared her tiny claws, and sunk them into the bark above her head. She pulled her little furry form upwards.
“Ha!” she exclaimed, reaching further with her other hand. She dug in with her rear claws, stabilizing herself. Before long she was making rather quick work of the climb.
“Whoa! Sissy, you’re doing it!” Coby cheered, impressed.
Two or three other nearby kids wandered over, their interests taken by the spectacle of the climbing pup.
“What’s she doing?” one asked.
“I think she’s going after the nest,” another replied.
Sissy entered the sea of branches, at first with a bit of a rustle, but quickly growing silent as she got used to her surroundings. It only took a few moments before she found the particular branch she’d been aiming for and transitioned onto it. She grinned proudly to herself as she did; almost without a sound, she thought, as if she were already an expert arboreal hunter.
Coby drew in closer, his little bear eyes following the shadow of the werewolf in the canopy above. Down on all fours, she slunk stealthily along a narrowing tree limb, taking care not to shake it with her steps.
“She’s gonna do it!” a kid exclaimed.
“Shh!! You’ll scare them away!” came a much quieter, but equally excited reply.
Sissy wasn’t paying attention to any of them anymore. She was doing what her big sister had taught her. She was focusing, focusing on her prey. There was a nest toward the end of the branch, occupied by a small number of little, brightly adorned birds, and they were about to become her feathery little after-school snacks. And maybe, if she caught more than one, she’d share with Coby.
The wood beneath her started to bend ever so slightly as she approached. But like a good little predator, she moved so slowly that her prey didn’t even notice. She was close now. If she moved any nearer she’d risk scaring off the birds, but she was already within pouncing distance, she just needed a good jump.
The little werewolf tensed her legs and sunk low, her eyes locked on her future snacks. Her little claws carved small divots into the branch in anticipation. She took a breath, and then she leapt. Completely unreserved, she launched herself at the nest, tongue trailing from her open mouth, arms outstretched. She hit her target dead on, plowing into the nest. There was a cacophony of squawks from her prey, and a flutter of feathers, but there was also another sound, a much louder, sharper sound.
*SNAP*!
Sissy felt weightless. She looked down. The ground was coming up fast, and Coby was right below her.
…
“And since then I always remembered: ‘look before you leap’.” Fiona finished the completely unrelated story she’d been telling Jack. Timely, too, as they were just approaching Sissy’s elementary school.
“Sounds like good advice to me,” Jack replied. The happy, playful chatter of younger children grew louder in his ears. He glanced over the building, stout yet welcoming, with a sprawling, sun-kissed tree sprouting up in the front yard. The grassy lawn was currently full of kids waiting to be picked up; plenty of humans and preds alike, running and playing games, or sitting and talking. Most had nothing to fear, as only the oldest students had grown enough to attempt a human meal. Safe nostalgia tugged at him.
“Well, Sissy should be around here somewhere,” Fiona said idly.
The mention of the pup’s name soured his mood a bit. The one downside of staying at Fiona’s was that he’d have to contend with her little sister all night, and he’d already had his fill of predators trying to have their fill of him. Still, it was definitely the safer option. And Sissy wasn’t so bad. She was nice, in a way… sometimes.
*SNAP*!
Jack had been admiring the tree absentmindedly when the sound reached him. His eyes flicked onto a branch as it fell- and there was a kid on it! No time at all to think, an impulse filled his mind, one he’d felt quite often whenever a predator would lunge at him: an impulse to make it stop.
Before he even knew it, before a single scream had reached him, almost before Fiona’s ears had even perked up, Jack felt himself grab hold of his wand- by now a very practiced motion. He flung his arm out forward, straight and stiff, and he yelled snappily.
“Pendere!”
The word had left his mouth before he’d even thought of what he was saying. And no sooner had he finished the word than Fiona had sped by him. Reacting just a split-second later, she had noticed something that would take Jack another few moments still: the falling child was Sissy.
Jack and Fiona both had moved on reflex, without yet thinking. And similarly Jack and Fiona both were nearly dumbstruck when they saw what happened next. The tree limb, Sissy, an assortment of leaves, and even a bird’s nest- all of which had been falling- were now hanging still in midair, just a handful of feet off the ground.
Fiona nearly stumbled at the surprise, but she refocused herself, skidding to a controlled stop in the dirt and quickly grabbing onto Sissy with both hands. But she couldn’t move her sister any more than gravity could. In that first instant of stillness, she finally realized what was going on. She looked back at Jack, and for a moment they both shared the same look of amazement, and the same thought:
Jack had just done magic.
It was a long moment, ended only when Jack started to feel the strain in his arm from the sustained spell. He blinked off his astonishment and realized that the kid on the ground had long moved out of harm’s way, and that Fiona had the rest covered. He let his arm fall, and then so did the branch, concluding its trip down to the earth with a loud clatter. Fiona’s arms plunged as well, but she was able to keep her sister from hitting the ground.
He heard the other kid, the one who Sissy had almost landed on, ask something of the older werewolf sibling as he huddled around her legs. Fiona muttered something back and gestured toward Jack. The bear cub turned to look at him, but before he could do more, Sissy leaped out of her sister’s arms and sprinted toward him on all fours.
Jack was still too stunned to react, but the sight of the pup barreling toward him did a lot to bring him back to his senses. She had a huge grin on her face, but also something else. She slowed down when she got close, but it wasn’t until she stopped in front of him, wolf tail wagging excitedly, that he was able to make out what it was.
The feathery wing and shoulder of a bird stuck out from between the child’s lips, still twitching and jerking as the creature fought hopelessly within. She looked up at him, as if to speak, but realized her mouth wasn’t ready.
*gulp*
The feathers disappeared abruptly before Jack’s eyes, and a small bulge rolled down her neck, undoubtably on its way to settle in her belly. Normally that might have unsettled him, but he was still too astonished by recent events.
“Did you do magic to save me?” Sissy asked with quiet, excited wonder.
“Yeah… I did,” Jack replied with a growing smile of disbelief.
The bear cub ran up behind Sissy, just in time to overhear their exchange.
“Wow, that was super cool! You totally saved me from that tree!” he cheered. “That’s your magic wand, right? Can I see it!?”
“Uh, sure,” Jack replied. He lowered his hand. He wasn’t about to give it over, but he saw no harm in letting the boy take a closer look at it.
“Whoa…” the cub breathed.
Then Jack’s smile shrank a little: he saw the little bear boy sniff noticeably. The cub looked up at him.
“You smell really good.”
“This is Jack, he always smells yummy,” Sissy introduced.
“You know him?”
“Uh-huh, he’s that human I told you about, the first one I ever ate.” She gestured at his body broadly, as if bragging that she’d managed to swallow something his size. “But my sister wants to keep him all for herself, so she made me let him go.”
“Really?” the cub asked in wonder.
The fact that the two kids were marveling over how edible he was did much to keep his previously growing ego in check.
“Good thing you didn’t eat him all the way, huh? Or we’d be all splat now.” The cub’s focus changed, shifting away from the human’s enticing facets and back towards his wand.
Jack relaxed a little.
“I guess so,” Sissy admitted, trying to be agreeable.
“It’s definitely a good thing,” Fiona chimed in, approaching much more slowly than the younger kids had. She wore a big, proud smile on her face. “Jack that was awesome! You finally cast a real spell!”
“I know! Ozzy was right, it just… clicked!” He brought his wand up to his face to examine it, almost as if he couldn’t believe he’d been the one to wield it.
“Are you Sissy’s big sister?” asked the cub with a polite tug on the older werewolf’s clothing.
“Yeah?” she replied questioningly. He looked over at Jack for a moment, as if thinking over his next words.
“…Thank you guys for not eating Jack, he’s nice.”
Fiona was the one who replied. “You’re welcome,” she said with a warm smile.
Then the cub looked at Jack directly. “Bye Jack,” he said with a smile of his own and a wave before running off back into the school yard. “And thank you too!”
…
In contrast to the rest of the day, it had been a rather subdued afternoon. Instead of the lengthy chats that usually occupied their sleepovers, at the moment Fiona and Jack were enjoying the pleasant diversion of one of Jack’s comic books. Jack was narrating the story aloud from the living room couch while Fiona eyed the colorful illustrations from beside him. His narration made sure they were always on the same page, and unspokenly it was also just loud enough to drown out the occasional gurgles and groans that leaked from the werewolf’s bloated midriff.
They’d been at it for a good while when another sound came to interrupt them.
“Kids, I’m home,” called a familiar voice.
“Mommy!” came another a moment later.
They could hear Sissy before they saw her, her little fuzzy feet padding quickly along the upper floor of the house as she ran through the hall and then bounded down the stairs. They hadn’t seen much of the pup that evening; she’d seemed content to play alone in her room. It was a bit out of character for her, but there was that old saying ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’, and if you were Jack you never looked anything in the mouth willingly.
Mrs. Lupella entered the living room first, sniffing the air once inconspicuously as she looked toward the couch.
“Oh, hello Jack, nice to see you again,” she greeted with a smile. His visits weren’t unusual at this point, but after not seeing him for years, he could understand why she might still feel the urge to welcome him. Or maybe she still felt compelled to make up for the greeting she almost gave him the first time he’d come over.
“Mommy!” came the excited call again as Sissy ran into the room, skidding to a halt on all fours before pulling herself back to her feet, tail wagging enthusiastically.
“Well hello my little pup,” she scooped up her daughter with a little smile. “How was school today?”
“I caught a bird!” the little werewolf exclaimed.
“Oh yeah?”
“Uh-huh! I did it all on my own!”
“Really?” Mrs. Lupella replied, sounding impressed. “Tell me!”
“Well it was up in this tree, right. So I used my claws to get up there, and I snuck up on the nest all quiet just like I’m supposed to. And then I jumped and grabbed it.”
There was the tiniest break in Mrs. Lupella’s smile.
“But then the tree broke! And the birds started to fly away, but I caught one in my mouth.”
At this point she quickly looked over her precious daughter for any signs of injury.
“I thought Coby was gonna try and catch me, cause he was right under me, but then Jack and Fiona showed up and Jack caught me with his magic! Even though I was surprised, I was a good hunter and never let go of my prey. I didn’t get one for Coby, though, but I bet I will next time.”
The werewolf mother’s mood had turned. She still wore a facade, so little Sissy didn’t notice, but Fiona and Jack sure did.
“This was the tree in front of the school?”
“Uh-huh,” Sissy replied.
Mrs. Lupella looked over at her older daughter for a moment. She noted the girl’s belly.
“Fiona, seems you managed to catch a nice meal for yourself. Well done.” She spoke with a passive-aggressive undertone, though it wasn’t directed at Fiona. “And it sounds like Sissy caught herself a nice little something too. I think I’ll catch myself something as well. I’ll be back in just a minute.”
She put down her pup and walked rather calmly back towards the front door. Jack wasn’t sure, but he thought he could see a patch of her fur beginning to bristle as she shut it behind herself.
“What do you think mommy’s gonna catch?” Sissy asked innocently.
Jack and Fiona glanced at each other, then both looked at Sissy, but said nothing. After a moment, Sissy shrugged and turned away from them, looking instead at the door, her tail still wagging gently in happy anticipation.
They didn’t have to wait long.
The werewolf sisters naturally heard it first, their ears perking up almost in unison. Jack heard it a few seconds later: indistinct words spoken in harsh and fearful tones, accompanied by the occasional growl or snarl.
The front door opened again, rather sharply, and Mrs. Lupella stepped back inside her home, but she wasn’t alone. She held a man tightly by the arm, his messy hair and the handful of claw marks on his clothes implied there had already been a bit of a scuffle, and it hadn’t gone well for him.
Mrs. Lupella marched the man into the living room in true motherly fashion and stood him up in front of the surprised children, but specifically in front of Sissy.
“Say it,” she ordered sternly, holding the snarl from her voice.
“I’m sorry!” he blurted out.
“Good.”
Without another word, she hoisted the man off the ground and shoved him head-first down her gullet. She made quick work of him too; it only took a few quick swallows. He disappeared down her throat with a smoothness that Jack had only really seen, well, from her daughters- not that he needed another reminder of that. Within seconds the werewolf woman’s hands were free, replaced by a large, bulging belly- one noticeably bigger than Fiona’s.
“Wow, you caught that human so fast…” Sissy marveled.
“Who, um, was that?” Fiona asked as she watched her mother calm down, patting at her fur to lay it back neatly into place.
“The former groundskeeper for Sissy’s school,” she answered matter-of-factly. “He lived just down the road.” She shook her head derisively. “Leaving a bird’s nest in a tree at an elementary school,” she scolded. “He should’ve known better with so many young predators running around.”
She huffed one final time to finish recomposing herself, then she set her eyes on Jack. She walked over to him, and he tried his best not to feel unnerved, especially when she placed a clawed hand on his shoulder.
“Jack, honey, thank you so much for looking after my little girl. It means more to me than I can say.”
He smiled genuinely, though he couldn’t help it if a bit of his discomfort showed. Her squirming belly was right in his face, after all. But after a moment, she seemed to notice that.
“I’m very sorry you had to see all that,” she apologized, backing away politely. “But it’s all taken care of now. Say, do you like potato stew?”
“Oh, uh- yeah, actually,” Jack replied, caught even further off guard.
“Perfect. He was cooking some for dinner, but I’m sure he won’t be needing it now. I’ll go get it for you,” she said with a pleasant smile.
Once again, Mrs. Lupella turned and headed for the door. And not for the first time, Jack found himself praising his lucky stars that he was on the good side of this werewolf family.
…
A good while later and Jack was sitting by the windowsill, twiddling his thumbs in distant thought, listening to the muffled sounds of running water as the shower ran in the nearby bathroom. He sat alone, in Fiona’s bedroom, with the sun having long set, his sleeping bag rolled out on the floor, and having eaten a large helping of the admittedly delicious potato stew for his dinner. Within an hour or three he’d be asleep and this entire, stressful day would finally be behind him.
*creek*
He looked back to see the door crack open, and the little furry head of an inquisitive werewolf pup peaked through. Cautiously raising his guard, he shifted to better face her and his hand moved closer to his wand. Sissy’s eyes found him, but she moved rather peacefully, pushing through the door the rest of the way and approaching calmly. Her tail hung relaxed, not stiff as if she were about to pounce on him, or eagerly twitching as if she were enacting some devious plan.
“Fiona’s in the shower,” he said.
“I know,” the pup replied.
That response didn’t help ease his nerves. But she hadn’t spoken it threateningly, or even suggestively. And now she just stood there, looking at him. So he asked the obvious.
“So, are you gonna try to eat me again while she’s busy?”
There was a long, quiet pause, as if she were reconsidering a decision she’d already made, but wasn’t sure she’d stick to.
“…No,” she finally said. “Jack bought you some time.”
“‘Jack’ bought me some time?” asked Jack.
“The birdie, the one you helped me catch, I named him Jack,” the pup explained.
“…The one you ate?”
“Mm-hm,” she nodded.
She’d known that bird for all of ten seconds, it was kind of adorable that she’d given it a name in that short time. Of course, she’d also named it after him, and shortly after eaten it alive. And according to her, the little meal it provided was all that was keeping its namesake from facing the same fate. Maybe it wasn’t so cute after all.
“I didn’t really help you catch it,” he replied, shrugging off the thought, “I just stopped you from falling.”
“That helped,” Sissy replied. “… … Thank you.”
That caught Jack off guard. It sounded quite genuine. He eyed the pup, feeling he should be suspicious, but she seemed sincere- if a bit reserved. He smiled, just a little.
“You know, I think you did a good job catching Ja- I mean, the bird.” He thought back to when he and Fiona were kids. She would always take great pride whenever she’d caught anything herself, especially a bird.
“Really?” Sissy asked happily, her tail starting to wag.
“Yeah, I bet it’s not easy sneaking up on one, especially not in a tree.”
“No! It’s not! I had to be real careful.”
Not careful enough considering you fell out of the tree. But Jack didn’t voice that thought. Instead, he thought back over some of the other things Fiona used to talk about.
“Did your dad teach you how to do that?”
“No, Fiona did. She teaches me everything. I can’t really remember my daddy…” Her tail slowed down quite a bit.
“Oh, uh-” Jack muttered.
He scolded himself fiercely. He’d let himself get so lost in nostalgia that he’d nearly forgotten. Of course Sissy would have been too young to remember! He felt like an inconsiderate jerk; ironic considering he’d been trying to be nice. He looked down at her. She didn’t seem upset, to his relief, but that still didn’t leave him feeling good about what he’d said.
“…Guess my foot’s in my mouth, huh?” he mumbled, half to himself.
“I wish it was in my mouth,” she mumbled back.
Well that was fair, now they were both uncomfortable. Might as well go all-in then.
“…You know, I lost my dad just like you.”
“Did he get sick too?”
“No, a predator got him.” Jack looked away and frowned.
“Oh, well that’s better,” she said with a nod.
“That’s better?”
“Yeah,” she said with kid-ly wisdom. “At least that predator got a big happy belly. When a daddy gets sick, no one gets happy.”
That was an oddly… objective way of looking at it.
*click*
The latch in the doorhandle turned and the bathroom door opened. Jack hadn’t even noticed Fiona turning off the water. She stepped out in her PJs, fur still lightly damp.
“Sissy?” she asked, laying eyes on her little sister. “What are you up to?”
“Just talking,” the pup replied innocently.
Fiona glanced at Jack, who nodded back affirmatively. For once that innocence hadn’t been feigned.
“That’s a nice change,” she said.
With Fiona now present, the little pup turned and walked toward the bedroom door, just as quietly as she’d entered, except as she stepped out into the hall, she called back:
“See you for breakfast, Jack. I’ll save some room for you.”
“…What was that about?” Fiona asked, skeptical and a bit confused.
“I think she just gave me a pass for the night,” Jack replied. He had no doubt she’d be back at it tomorrow, but it was a step in the right direction, and at least he’d finally caught a break.
For tonight, he wouldn’t have anything to worry about.